Tuesday, September 09, 2014

California Boots Christian Clubs Across the State

California has “de-recognized” any and all organizations that hold Biblical beliefs from every campus in the state system of universities that includes 447,000 students. According to California state law, officially recognized clubs must allow anyone and everyone to be eligible to hold LEADERSHIP positions in the club — apparently including all unrepentant drunkards, slanderers, swindlers, revilers, thieves, adulterers, as well as the greedy, the sexually immoral and those who advocate sexual deviancy.

“For an organization to be recognized, they must sign a general nondiscrimination policy. We have engaged with [InterVarsity Christian Fellowship] for the better part of a year and informed them they would have to sign a general nondiscrimination statement. They have not.”-- Mike Uhlencamp, director of public affairs for the California State University

A well-established international Christian student group is being denied recognition at almost two dozen California college campuses because it requires leaders to adhere to Christian beliefs, effectively closing its leadership ranks to non-Christians and gays.

California State University, which has 23 campuses, is “de-recognizing” local chapters of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship [IVCF], an evangelical Christian group with 860 chapters in the United States. The university system says InterVarsity’s leadership policy conflicts with its state-mandated nondiscrimination policy requiring membership and leadership in all official student groups be open to all.

Some campuses have reached an agreement with InterVarsity that permit chapters to remain on individual campuses. Ohio State University rewrote its student organization registration guidelines to read, “A student organization formed to foster or affirm the sincerely held religious beliefs of its members may adopt eligibility criteria for its Student Officers that are consistent with those beliefs.”

Other religiously oriented student groups have signed nondiscrimination policies where required, including Jewish, Catholic, mainline Protestant and Muslim groups. Hillel, the largest Jewish student organization, reports some local chapters have elected non-Jews to some posts.

“This new CSU policy does not allow us to require that our leaders be Christian,” InterVarsity said in an article addressing California State University System policy conflict with InterVarsity's Doctrinal Basis.

“[W]hile we applaud inclusivity, we believe that faith-based communities like ours can only be led by people who clearly affirm historic Christian doctrine,” the organization wrote.

The CSU system has previously granted exemptions for sororities and fraternities that discriminate on the basis of gender, an exemption that has IVCF requesting “similar provision[s] for creedal communities.”